Once an obscure discipline in the art world, the appreciation of textile art is now on the rise. Just three years ago, publishers Phaidon released a “first of its kind” survey of over 100 global living fibre artists, titled Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art – this September, the book will be released as a paperback edition for the first time.
The artists celebrated in Vitamin T range from those working almost entirely in threads and fibres, such as Columbian artist Olga de Amaral or Mexican artist Pia Camil, to those who use textiles as part of mix-media works or their wider artistic practice, such as British artist Phyllida Barlow or Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui.
INSTALLATION PHOTO OF “WAITING FOR THE UFOS” AT KEMPER MUSEUM. © POLLY APFELBAUM
One of the artists in the book who create rug-like works is American artist Polly Apfelbaum, who is perhaps best known for her vibrant and gigantic floor coverings, many of which are hand-woven in collaboration with artisans in Mexico. Apfelbaum’s creations may look playful – technicolour geometric or abstract forms, body parts, and even flowers – but behind these cheerful shapes, she is inspired by ideas of social politics, feminism, pop culture and the blurring of high and traditional crafts.
INSTALLATION VIEW OF IGSHAAN ADAMS KICKING DUST AT HAYWARD GALLERY, 2021 © IGSHAAN ADAMS, 2021. PHOTO BY MARK BLOWER
Another maker of floor weavings and woven tapestries highlighted in Vitamin T is Igshaan Adams, who is currently enjoying his first solo exhibition in the UK, at London’s Hayward Gallery (Igshaan Adams: Kicking Dust, until 25 July 2021). A gay, practising Muslim from South Africa, Adams’s textiles explore the conflicts of his race, identity, religion and sexuality. He often collaborates with family and friends in beading his intricate, mix-media artworks.
OM NOM ORE, 2015 / TODO CUSTO, 2015. © CAROLINE ACHAINTRE
Meanwhile, London-based artist Caroline Achaintre creates hand-tufted wool tapestries inspired by German Expressionism and Primitivism. She learned to tuft while at university, when she wanted to bring a large-scale, spatial quality to her ink drawings. She “fell in love” with tufting. “I never thought I’d still be doing it 13 years later,” she said in a 2016 interview.
American artist Josh Faught sews, crochets and weaves hemp yarn with everyday objects like nail polish, books and paper towels to combine traditional crafts with his personal history and politics. “For years, fibres or textiles were a surrogate for political activism,” he has said. In a world where we are constantly reacting to events and updates, textiles are his challenge to say “something very urgently through the slowest means possible”.
TRIAGE, 2009. © JOSH FAUGHT. SOURCE: SAATCHI GALLERY
Last, but by no means least, one pioneer missing from Vitamin T’s list is award-winning textile artist Sheila Hicks, whose colourful works are in the collections of the museums in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and beyond. Hicks, who is now in her eighties, has been experimenting with textiles since her mid-twenties and has studied with Josef Albers at Yale. Blurring the boundaries between painting, architecture and traditional crafts, Hicks’s creations range from small, woven pieces to monumental installations.
Our Design Director Esti Barnes was lucky enough to be in Santiago in December 2019 to visit her exhibition Reencuentro at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, exhibiting works inspired by pre-Columbian textiles of the Andes.
ARTWORKS FROM REENCUENTRO, SHEILA HICKS’S EXHIBITION AT MUSEO CHILENO DE ARTE PRECOLOMBINO, 2019. PHOTOS BY ESTI BARNES.
A solo exhibition of Hicks’s new work is on view at Alison Jacques Gallery in London (Music to My Eyes, until 31 July 2021), while a major retrospective is planned at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2022.